Selected passion quotes

1. One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

2. Thank God, I have my work, but instead of earning money by it, I need money to be able to work; that is the difficulty. I think there are no signs in my work that indicate that I shall fail. And I am not a person who works slowly or tamely. Drawing becomes a passion with me, and I throw myself into it more and more. I do not have great plans for the future; if for a moment I feel rising within me the desire for a life without care, for prosperity, each time I go fondly back to the trouble and the cares, to a life full of hardship, and think: It is better so; I learn more from it, and make progress. This is not the road on which one perishes. I only hope the trouble and the cares will not become unbearable, and I have confidence I shall succeed in earning enough to keep myself, not in luxury, but as one who eats his bread in the sweat of his brow.

3. I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

4. The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.

5. There are some people who begin the Zoo at the beginning, called WAYIN, and walk as quickly as they can past every cage until they get to the one called WAYOUT, but the nicest people go straight to the animal they love the most, and stay there.

6. There is scarcely any passion without struggle.

7. Life is a stream On which we strew Petal by petal the flower of our heart.

8. I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days.

9. I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, 'Well, what do you love most?' That's how I started painting money.

10. Any man who concentrates his energies totally on one passion is, by definition, someone who hurts the people close to him.

11. The closer a man approaches tragedy the more intense is his concentration of emotion upon the fixed point of his commitment, which is to say the closer he approaches what in life we call fanaticism.

12. By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings.

13. I started racing go-karts. And I love karts. It's the most breath taking sport in the world. More than F1, indeed, I used to like it most.

14. Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.

15. My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose.

16. The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive reason through false appearances, and the senses are disturbed by passions, which produce false impressions.

17. All I want to do, ever, is play chess.

18. A man must live like a great brilliant flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end he burns out. But this is far better than a mean little flame.

19. We're here to re-dedicate you to The Power, The Passion, The Mystery, and The Ministry of Rock and Roll.

20. Nothing, believe me, nothing is more satisfying to me personally than getting a great idea and then beatin' it to death.

21. To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!

22. There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.

23. My drug of choice is historical research.

24. Art is vice. One does not wed it, one rapes it.

25. No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

26. He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

27. Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

28. Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue.

29. Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.

30. In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.

31. The riches of the game are in the thrills, not the money.

32. The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

33. Passion, intellect, moral activity - these three have never been satisfied in a woman. In this cold and oppressive conventional atmosphere, they cannot be satisfied. To say more on this subject would be to enter into the whole history of society, of the present state of civilisation.

34. The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.

35. When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.

36. A master passion is the love of news.

37. In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: We are betrayed by what is false within.

38. I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity.

39. Youth is the time when hearts are large, And stirring wars Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn To the blade it draws.

40. Love, who is most beautiful among the immortal gods, the melter of limbs, overwhelms in their hearts the intelligence and wise counsel of all gods and all men.

41. La passion comblee a son innocence, presque aussi fragile que toute autre.

42. Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, let's make love tonight Wake up, Wake up, Wake up, Wake up, 'cos you do it right.

43. How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves! Again - thou hearest? Eternal passion! Eternal pain!

44. I'd like to borrow his body for just 48 hours. There are three guys I'd like to beat up, and four women I'd like to make love to.

45. I am a mariner of Odysseus with heart of fire but with mind ruthless and clear.

46. We, who are dying, are doing better, than they, who will live. For Crete doesn't need householders, she needs madmen like us. These madmen make Crete immortal.

47. A vehement eros runs through the Universe. It is like the ether: harder than steel, softer than air. It cuts through and passes beyond all things, it flees and escapes.

48. 'For fifty-two years, Dr. Norman Borlaug has been helping to provide more food to the most needy areas of the world. But perhaps of greater importance, this distinguished scientist-philosopher has been demonstrating practical ways to give people of the entire world a higher quality of life ... The passion that drives Dr. Borlaug's life is an inspiration for all of us to follow. Since 1986, we've worked together through Global 2000 of The Carter Center and the Sasakawa Africa Association to help small-scale farmers to improve agricultural productivity and crop quality, sometimes two or even threefold. It has been an honor to collaborate with Dr. Borlaug. He is a true humanitarian and a dear friend.'

49. Life is a disease of the spirit; a working incited by Passion. Rest is peculiar to the spirit.

50. I'd love to be a sculptor. I studied photography, sculpture and theatre for my A-levels and at that age I was torn as I got better results for the others than for theatre studies. But ultimately acting was what I always wanted to do. It was my calling in life.

51. I have a sense of comfortableness in love; it isn't grand sweeping passions that I expected to feel.

52. There are three things that I know a bit about in my life and that's QPR, my guitar and drugs. I know QPR are the best football team in the world, my guitar is the most beautiful thing I own and that I don't take enough drugs to kill me. It isnt drugs that I need to get rid of; it's the demons that fill my head. Once I have come to terms with my demons, maybe I'll be able to get clean.

53. If you've lost your faith in love and music The end won't be long But if it's gone for you I too may lose it And that would be wrong...

54. On a peine a hair ce qu'on a bien aime, Et le feu mal eteint est bientot rallume.

55. Fervent bella horrida, fervent ossibus inclusa fremit et discordibus armis non simplex natura hominis.

56. O tenderly the haughty day Fills his blue urn with fire; One morn is in the mighty heaven, And one in our desire.

57. 'Though acting came first, I love to sing,'

58. Then Love, I beg, when next thou takest thy bow, Thy angry shafts, and dost heart-chasing go, Pass rascal deer, strike me the largest doe.

59. I would sing in the mirror, holding a brush to my mouth like it was a microphone. The neighbors would always be complaining about how loud I was singing.

60. Made us nobly wild, not mad.

61. A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labors tire.

62. He has no native Passion, because he is not a Thinker - & has probably weakened his Intellect by the haunting Fear of becoming extravagant.

63. Our passions are most like to floods and streams; The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.

64. 'I can't believe they pay us to play baseball - something we did for free as kids.'

65. Lavoisier was right in the deepest, almost holy, way. His passion harnessed feeling to the service of reason; another kind of passion was the price. Reason cannot save us and can even persecute us in the wrong hands; but we have no hope of salvation without reason. The world is too complex, too intransigent; we cannot bend it to our simple will.

66. 'You can tell he loves what he's doing.'

67. When I look back at Stairs to the Roof... I see its faults very plainly, as plainly as you may see them, but still I do not feel apologetic about this play. Unskilled and awkward as I was at this initial period of my playwriting, I certainly had a moral ernestness which I cannot boast of today, and I think that moral ernestness is a good thing for any times, but particularly for these times. I wish I still had the idealistic passion of Benjamin Murphy! You may smile as I do at the sometimes sophomoric aspect of his excitement, but I hope you will respect, as I do, the purity of his feeling and the honest concern which he had in his heart for the basic problem of mankind, which is to dignify our lives with a certain freedom.

68. I found it as alluring as a wayward woman and determined to tame it.

69. I'm gonna give her all my soul. I'm gonna play her Rock 'N' Roll.

70. Do what you like. This is what I like and that's what I'm doing.

71. That place is my baby and I would prostitute myself for it.

72. [driving his first race] Hey, Lucius, I just wanted to share a piece of personal information with you. I've got a...a chubby right now because THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST AWESOME EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE!! I'M GETTIN' TO DRIVE A RACECAR I CAN'T BELIEVE IT OH MY GOD!!!

73. His misfortune was that he loved youth - he was weak to it, it kindled him. If there was one eager eye, one doubting, critical mind, one lively curiosity in a whole lecture-room full of commonplace boys and girls, he was its servant. That ardour could command him. It hadn't worn out with years, this responsiveness, any more than the magnetic currents wear out; it had nothing to do with Time.

74. 'Love Song' from Al Que Quiere! (1917)

75. But that disease when soberly defined Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind.

76. 'I go to U.C. Berkeley and I'm studying engineering, which is totally not related to music, but I really like music. I want to make music my living.'

77. Music isn't enough. Performers aren't enough. There must be someone that loves music as much as life. For you, and remember this always, those of us with something urgent to say, we give everything.

78. I loved the theaters, and even though I was hungry, I never spent money for food.

79. I had long known that there was something about me that was either violent or frightening for some reason. In certain three-sided clothing store images I had for some years come upon myself, with shock and disbelief, regret, and shame, disappointment and despair, for I am indeed clearly violent, mad, and ugly, all because of intensity of some kind, a tension, an obsession with getting everything that there was to be got, a passion, an insanity.

80. There seem near as many people that want passion as want reason.

81. I've never considered playing music to have anything to do with being 'professional'.

82. When Man comes at me do I rein in the stallion, or let him meet the hooves?

83. I just think there's a breed of people who honestly like music. And there aren't very many of 'em, really. Those are the people who usually become musicians. It doesn't really matter what environment you grow up in. It's just some environments are more restrictive than others. (1994)

84. Make me feel the wild pulsation that I felt before the strife, When I heard my days before me, and the tumult of my life; Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield, Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father's field

85. Women are weak, easily swayed by passion, driven by desire, lust. He lit a fire in her body, a fire that still burned, even in his absence

86. for when women take revenge, it is with all their hearts and souls, not to mention considerable inventiveness and ingenuity

87. For what is a flower but life's expressed passion for itself. Sudden and brief, but certain and eternal at the same time

88. In movies, the balance between art and business has always been precarious, with business outweighing art, but the business was, at least, in the hands of businessmen who loved movies. As popular entertainment, movies need something of what the vulgarian moguls had - zest, a belief in their own instincts, a sentimental dedication to producing pictures that would make their country proud of their contribution, a respect for quality, and the biggest thing: a willingness to take chances. The cool managerial sharks don't have that; neither do the academics. But the vulgarians also did more than their share of damage, and they're gone forever anyway. They were part of a different America. They were, more often than not, men who paid only lip service to high ideals, while gouging everyone for profits. The big change in the country is reflected in the fact that people in the movie business no longer feel it necessary to talk about principles at all.

89. If I want drugs, I don't have to do a gig to get them. I do a gig when I feel shit, because I need to be playing. There's no drug in the world that can compare with playing music

90. The four of us are talking dancing, and laughing, and recalling the joys of being out on the floor and having that timeless feeling that comes from being caught up in the music. 'Nobody should miss that,' says Dave. On the face of it, Dave's family and I don't have a lot in common. They're Mormons and Republicans. I'm a Unitarian and a Democrat. When Dave was on the County Council, we were on different sides of some important issues. I grew up a Southern Baptist in Texas where dancing was a mortal sin in the eyes of Almighty God, but coffee was OK. Dave grew up a Latter Day Saint where dancing was considered righteous - but not coffee. But . . . we're dancers. And laughers. That's a strong bond right there. And we're committed to being useful in our world. And if you love something, like dancing, and you pass it on, like Dave and his wife do, you've been very useful by my standards. Dancing is a lifetime, equal opportunity sport. And I will never drive by Dave's garage again without having the finest feelings for the man and his wife and mother who are inside taking good care of their corner of this world. They've added an important dimension to the lives of the young people of their town - that lightness of being that belongs to dancers.

91. Franz Mehring, the biographer of Marx, did not exaggerate when he called Rosa Luxemburg the best brain after Marx. But she did not contribute her brain alone to the working-class movement; she gave everything she had - her heart, her passion, her strong will, her very life. ~ Tony Cliff

92. this game's like my religion

93. It may be called the Master Passion, the hunger for self-approval.

94. If you believe something, passionately, people will follow you because they thing you know something they don't, some clue to the meaning of the universe. Passion is tricky, though, because it can point to nothing just as easily as it points to something

95. Passion is the fuel.

96. The only real game - I think - in the world is baseball.

97. Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast And by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest. Shrouded by the night and by the secret stair I quickly fled. The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead.

98. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

99. That kid had heart.

100. The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American society.